Pop Culture and Wall Street

In my opinion finance has never really been part of pop culture. In fact, the stereotypical "finance geek" has been the paradigm of un-cool in the world. Sure, there is the occaisional film about the finance world (Wall Street, Boiler Room, Trading Places), but those are really financial world cult classics. The average person doesn't really care much for them. Recently, however, I have come across a strange phenomenon. Wall Street is really becoming part of main street.

Why did I come to this conclusion? It's a long weekend, and I was watching a new pop-culture phenomenon over lunch. I watched an episodes of this new show "Gossip Girl" online over lunch (don't ask). While I probably won't be watching another episode, it did provide me with some amusing insights into pop culture.

Normal people don't use the term "done" in normal conversation other than "I'd like my steak well done." These kids were regularly using "done" as a phrase in itself to communicate something being agreed upon. I think this clearly came from the trader's lexicon: "Bid fifty ten year notes." "Done." Normal people don't talk like that. Only market players talk like that. Apparently though, the new breed of teens out there are. Interesting, no? Maybe I'm extrapolating too much about pop culture from one episode of some teen show, but I don't think I'm extrapolating too much. Media does define language, afterall.

I suppose this progression is not too surprising with how much press Wall Street is getting lately. Hedge funds and investment banks are becoming part of everyday conversation. They're constantly in the news, and while they always stood as an illustration of wealth/greed they now stand as the glorified exemplars of wealth creation. Everyone thinks of bankers/traders and associates them with wealth and excitement. Well. . . maybe not so much excitement but some form of living the dream life. It's like investment types are starting to gain rock-star status.